Alexei Konstantinowitsch Tolstoy

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Alexei Konstantinowitsch Tolstoy.
Signature - "Graf AK Tolstoi": Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's Signature.svg

Count Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy ( Russian Алексей Константинович Толстой , scientific. Transliteration Alexei Tolstoy Konstantinović ; August * 24 . Jul / 5. September  1817 greg. In Saint Petersburg , † September 28 jul. / 10. October  1875 greg. In Krasny Rog , Chernigov Governorate ) was a Russian writer , playwright, and poet.

Life

Don Juan Serenade , music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (six romances, op.38, 1878), sung by Mario Ancona (recording: 1904)

Tolstoy came from the well-known Russian noble family of the Tolstois and was a cousin of Lev Tolstoy . Shortly after his birth, his parents separated and he was raised by his mother and his godfather, the writer Alexei Perowski (pseudonym: Antoni Pogorelski). He spent his early childhood on his mother's country estate. In 1826 he was accepted as a playmate in Saint Petersburg in the circle of the young heir to the throne and later Tsar Alexander II . He later lived with Perowski in the Ukraine , was trained by private tutors and accompanied his godfather on his travels abroad; He got to know Goethe , among others . Inspired and encouraged by this artistic environment, Tolstoy began writing at an early age.

At the age of 17, in 1834, Tolstoy was sent to the archives of the Moscow Foreign Ministry to study ; In 1835 he passed an exam and was accepted into the diplomatic service. His godfather Perowski died in 1836. Tolstoy took on his first smaller post from 1837 to 1840 with the Russian observer mission to the federal parliament in Frankfurt am Main . Shortly after taking office, however, he took a vacation and in the following years traveled to Germany , France , Italy and Russia to devote himself to his literary work. In 1841 his first story The Vampire (Упырь) appeared under the pseudonym "Krasnogorski" . However, he officially remained in diplomatic service and achieved the rank of Master of Ceremonies by 1851. "His first literary attempts consisted in lyrical poems, which received great attention due to the deep feeling expressed in them, the original phrases, the freshness and beauty of the descriptions of nature and the deep love for the people" (Meyers Konversationslexikon 1888).

In the 1840s, Tolstoy worked on his historical novel (Князь Серебряный) , which he completed in 1861. At the same time he led a glamorous, independent life in which he was allowed to do a lot as the protégé of the Tsarevich. This probably also included his long and stormy love affair with Sofia Andrejewna Miller , the wife of a guard officer who did not consent to the divorce for a long time. Most of Tolstoy's love poetry from this period was addressed to the beloved. Many of his poems and ballads from this period were set to music by Russian composers.

During the Crimean War (1853-1856) Tolstoy enlisted in the army, following the general patriotic upswing, but was not used at the front because of typhoid fever. After his return - Alexander II succeeded his father on the Tsar's throne - he was appointed wing adjutant at the coronation ceremony and later promoted to Imperial Jägermeister. Tolstoy used his proximity to the tsar to help disgraced friends, including Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev . He also campaigned for Taras Shevchenko's return from Caucasian exile.

In 1859 he again asked for unlimited leave from work, and in 1861 he finally withdrew into private life, in order to devote himself entirely to poetry ever since. As early as 1854, together with his two cousins Alexei and Vladimir Schemchuschnikow, under the pseudonym Kosma Prutkow, he created parodic and literary-critical texts that were published in the magazines Sovremennik and Iskra . In 1863 a necrology followed the fictional Kosma Prutkow.

After his retirement, the poet lived on his estates near St. Petersburg and in the Chernigov governorate ; In 1862 his drama Don Juan (Дон Жуан) , an original variation of the well-known material, was published, followed by a trilogy of tsarist dramas: The Death of Ivan the Terrible (Смерть Иоанна Грозного, 1866), Boris Fedor Ivanovich (аноро Фоор, 18 (Царь Борис, 1870).

In his later years, Tolstoy turned to satirical ballads and poems again. His material situation deteriorated considerably during these years, as did his health. He died on October 10, 1875 on his Ukrainian estate in Krasny Rog.

A full collection of his lyric and epic poems appeared in 1878.

Works

Web links

Commons : Alexei Konstantinowitsch Tolstoy  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Tolstoy, Alexei Konstantinowitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Толстой, Алексей Константинович (Russian); Tolstoj, Alexej Konstantinovič
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian writer, playwright and poet
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1875
Place of death Krasny Rog , Chernigov Governorate , Russian Empire